“Dana is a grown-up, but thanks.” She took a sip of seltzer with a slice of lime that’d been intended for tequila shots, her chemically straightened and meticulously colored blond locks brushing her shoulders. Ari had to stop herself from shaking her head sadly. Thirty was looming extremely close for Ari, and though she knew Dana’s obnoxious partner was a big reason for her sister’s irritating demeanor, she still couldn’t help worrying that the big 3–0 would come with some flip of a switch that would turn her into a boring pain in the ass.
Dana Becker and Judah Klein did not make the other side of thirty look fun.
A roar rose from the crowd as the dreidel landed on shin, forcing Danny to take another shot. “That’s it for me.” He groaned as he slammed down the empty glass. “Becker, take over.”
All three Becker girls looked up instinctively, and he laughed. “I meant Ari, but all are welcome.”
She’d initially begged off to deal with refilling platters and replenishing drinks—and, frankly, because she tried not to drink when she was sad—but now that her guests were sated and her mood was better, Ari happily took Danny’s seat around the coffeetable, to Hannah’s hearty applause. For a split second, Ari noticed Danny’s gaze shift to her little sister, and she quickly shot him her patented death glare until he looked away.
Focusing back on the game, Ari frowned down at the two measly foil-wrapped coins sitting in front of her. “Wow, Danny, you legit suck at this. Don’t I get some starter coins for joining midgame?”
“You’ll have to ask the SevivOhNo master,” Noah said seriously, “who’s been in the bathroom for…” He checked his watch. “At least seven minutes.”
“Akiva!” she hollered. “Get your ass back here!”
“You do not want me to do that right now!” he yelled back. Whatever he said next was completely drowned out by the sound of the front door slamming open, drawing everyone’s attention.
And before Ari could even process what was happening, a glowing, red-cheeked Liana jumped inside, thrusting her hand in the air. “We’re engaged!”
“So, we’re happy? Or we’re unhappy?” Naima asked, her eyebrows drawn into a confused wrinkle.
“We’re happy,” Arielle said firmly. She stared at the chipped royal blue polish on her nails against the veneer of the wood table and remembered how she’d offered to do Liana’s to match.It’ll be festive, for the party, she’d said. That was when Liana had told her she wouldn’t be able to make it, and they’d dropped the subject of nails entirely.
But Liana’s had been perfectly polished last night, a pristine pink that looked perfect on the hand now sporting the simple round diamond solitaire of her dreams.
When had her best friend grown up without her?
“Your mouth says happy,” James observed, “but your face does not say happy. Do we not like the guy?”
“We definitely like the guy.” Ari sighed, rubbing her thumbover the little opening in the plastic lid of her hot cup. “And we are happy for her. We are just not happy to be losing our best friend. And roommate—oh, God, I didn’t even think about how I need to find a new roommate.” She glared at her laptop. “KisStory needs to start paying me enough to live alone.”
“Hey, you know what you could’ve done to make that happen?” Naima shot her a pointed look, and Ari winced. It’d been a month since their old boss, Millie, took off to Stockholm and was replaced by an extremely enthusiastic dudebro named Erik who constantly needed the romance genre explained to him. Every single time he opened his mouth at one of their meetings, she was reminded of the wasted opportunity, and it was getting harder and harder to convince herself she’d done the right thing by not applying for Millie’s job.
“Did you tworeallywant me to become your boss? Don’t you think that would’ve sucked?”
“I thinkEriksucks,” James said flatly.
Ari’s coffee had gone cold, but she took a sip anyway, if for no other reason than to avoid their pointed stares as her stomach sank. Keeping the good things in her life from changing was why she hadn’t applied for the job, and then Liana had to go and get engaged and upend her whole life anyway.
“Things would’ve changed way more than the two of you are acknowledging,” Ari declared with an authority she didn’t entirely feel. “And what would’ve happened if I hadn’t gotten it? I would’ve had to look for a new job, and the gaming industry isn’t exactly swimming in openings for editors.”
“You are imminently more qualified than Erik,” said Naima, “and if you hadn’t gotten it, we probablyallwould’ve quit.”
“Now who’s being ridiculous?” Ari rolled her eyes and glanced at her email, groaning inwardly when she saw Erik had scheduled yet another meeting for Friday afternoon. No matter how many times she told him she had to sign off early on winter Fridays forShabbos, he always scheduled meetings that either ran right into it or butted up so close that she knew her entire day would be chaos.
“I have never seen someone love working on Fridays as much as this man does,” James said exasperatedly. “You’d think he’d want to spend his weekends with the girlfriend he can’t stop dropping into every conversation.”
Ari snorted. “Bet you a thousand dollars she ‘lives in Canada.’ No way a woman is tolerating him on the regular.”
“Oh, there’s someone for everyone,” Naima said lightly. It was one of her favorite sentiments, and normally Ari laughed it off, but today it rankled. It was easy to believe that when you were married. And yeah, there was somebody for Liana. There was somebody for Bella. There was someone for pretty much everyone in her life—even if Evan sucked, he was still someone for Dana. But that didn’t mean there was someone foreveryone.
Case in point: her entirely single ass.
Not that shewantedto be paired up, but she couldn’t even recall the last time she’d had the option. She’d never been asked on a date that didn’t have the obvious subtext of “Let’s fool around, but sure, I’ll buy you dinner or a movie ticket first.”
A little warning about Liana’s engagement might’ve helped. When she’d playfully ribbed Gideon about it the night before, he’d said he already knew what ring Liana wanted and what night her closest friends would already be together, so why not make it an actual surprise? “Who needs an official l’chaim when you have an authentic F-Train Chanukah party?” He’d looked so proud of himself—especially for his use of the nickname Akiva had created to encompass both of their apartments (4F and 5F)—that she couldn’t even let herself be pissed about being shafted out of the usual experience of throwing a surprise engagement party for one’s close friends.
And so she’d celebrated, and drank, and thought about making herself feel better by hooking up with Danny again, until sherealized it would make her feel worse, and drank some more. Frankly, it was a wonder she’d shown up on time this morning at all.
